


Not For sure

by words_savedme



Category: Fallout 3
Genre: Butch is sly and the Lone Wanderer is a nervous wreck, Comfort, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-03
Updated: 2015-11-03
Packaged: 2018-04-29 18:25:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5138012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/words_savedme/pseuds/words_savedme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Lone Wanderer has no one, until Butch shows up. Then neither of them are sure about anything, except for the fact that they have huge crushes on each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not For sure

When Tanden first heard that his father left the vault he didn't believe it. He thought it was just an early April Fool's prank, and Amata had to shake him to get him to move.  
"Move, Tanden! Your dad left the vault, and the overseer, my dad” she’d always had trouble calling him that, “my dad's going to look for you next, you have to get out of here!" She was flustered, hot tears running down her face and shaky arms.  
"What do you mean?" Tanden wasn't going anywhere, not without knowing this was real.   
"He left, Tanden. Your dad left, but he opened the vault entrance. Maybe you can get out there, but you have to go now.You have to hurry, my dad already sent guards to look for you." She glanced around in a panic, as if there were people around to see what she was doing. "I can't be seen with you, or I might be killed. I'm sorry, Tanden."  
He blinked his eyes a few times, trying to get out of this dream. This horrible, nightmarish dream where his dad wasn't around and Amata wasn't his friend.  
"I, I can't, Amata. I can't leave. My dad will come back, he has to. He can't just leave me here." Tanden checked the corridor frantically with his eyes, hoping there was some clue left behind. His father had always been an indirect man, so maybe he left something behind. Something he could hold onto until he came back.  
"Listen to me, Tanden." She grabbed his shoulders and gripped until it was painful. Tanden didn't flinch, he stayed where he was, hoping the pain would wake him up. This wasn't real, this couldn't be real. "Your dad let out an infestation of red-roaches when he left, as a distraction, so be careful. You just have to make it out of here, okay? You can do this." She nodded up at him, trying to get him to realize this was life or death. He had to leave, and there was no coming back.  
Tanden didn't say goodbye, he just stumbled away, a helpless puppy without anyone or anything to follow, and ran. He'd always been a good runner, the fastest in the vault. You couldn't run from your own life, though.  
He snuck past every guard he saw, until he heard a familiar voice.  
"Someone help! My Ma, she's stuck in there with rad-roaches!" Tanden watched from around the corner as his childhood bully pointed to a room in terror. The boy that had mocked him for years, just because he was a doctor's son.  
Tanden straightened out and jogged over to Butch.  
"Why can't you go in there yourself?" He couldn't save Butch's mom, he knew that. Maybe Butch could save her, though. Maybe he could realize that being a coward wasn't the best thing in the world.  
"You crazy?" Butch was frantic as he raised his eyebrows and looked between his mom and Tanden. Tanden thought he heard a small note of consideration, but maybe he hadn't. Maybe it was just himself, trying to think that Butch was more than a hot-headed bully.  
"No. Now, you know I can't save her, and I know I can't. So why don't you, because no one else in this damn vault cares." He felt bad for saying such harsh things, but the boy had to know by now that the guards didn't think about anyone but themselves.   
"Y-you, you think I can?" Butch had confidence in his voice, and his eyes pleaded Tanden's.  
"Yes." Tanden had never been a strong speaker, but now he had to be. It meant someone's life now, not just a silly grade or whether or not a fight would start.  
"T-thanks, Tanden." Tanden watched the gang member pick up a bat off the ground and charge into the room, screaming his head off.  
"Die! Die you sons-of-bitches!" Tanden heard him calm down after a few minutes and regroup with his mom. He didn't say goodbye to them.  
When he pulled the vault lever and the alarm system rang, he didn't look back at the vault. For some reason he couldn't.  
The light was bright when he stepped out, but he didn't stop. Stopping meant looking back and thinking too hard on everything that was happening.  
Tanden traveled to Megaton and blew up the town. He didn't know what was wrong with him, but whenever he looks back on the first weeks in the wasteland everything is blurry.   
He continued to look for his dad after he got over his Psycho addiction, and when he saw Butch in that bar his heart almost stopped.  
"Butch?" Tanden couldn't believe it, and he felt something in his stomach bubble. Maybe it was sadness, or maybe it was anger for what his dad had done. He didn't know, and right then he didn't really care.  
"Hey, Nosebleed! How are ya?" Butch was wasted, but Tanden didn't care. It was like his life was falling apart in front of his eyes again, listening to Amata scream and Butch save his mom.  
"What are you doing here?" He approached the boy with black hair, careful not to blink. This might be a dream, too.  
"Well, my mom killed herself after the Overseer went all crazy, and a whole bunch of us decided to escape, just like you." Butch booped Tanden's nose and giggled, and Tanden was sure that all of this hadn’t happened too long ago. Butch was drinking away his sorrows. "I was the only one who made it. Oh, and that Amat, Amit, Amut…” Butch wrinkled his forehead in confusion, “well your friend whose name I can't say, she's in charge now. She went crazy, just like her dad, too." Butch ordered another drink, but Tanden took it from him. He had to hear more about the life he could've had.  
"Hey, what're you doin', Tanny?" Butch laughed at his nickname and reached weakly for the glass.  
"I want to hear more, and maybe I'll let you have this drink after." Tanden was calm, calmer than he ever was before.  
Butch thought about it, staring at the glass. Tanden was pretty sure he was drinking because of his mom. His mom was always an alcoholic, and it got worse when his dad left.  
"Okay." It was like a switch turned on, and suddenly Butch was sober and solemn. He told Tanden about the air contamination, in the vault, and how a few people died before the overseer did. Afterwards he didn't want the drink.  
"Do you want to come with me? I mean, stay until you find a new gang or something?" Tanden had never been so daring before, but right now this boy in front of him was just a boy, not some big, bad, loser from the crummy part of the vault.  
Butch stared at him for a little. He could see the past in Tanden’s eyes, how the small, scrawny boy from vault 101 had been through a lot.  
"Okay. Where to, Nosebleed?" He smiled goofily and followed Tanden out the door.  
The two spent an awkward night together in an abandoned hotel room on the fifth floor. Over the past months Tanden learned that it was the safest floor possible.  
They hunted down his dad, Butch not as reluctant as Tanden expected. One day he asked him why he was okay with all of it, and Butch surprised him.  
“Because if I could, I’d hunt down my dad. I’d hunt him to the ends of the earth.” They held eye contact for a few seconds, and Tanden felt his own face burn.  
Butch noticed, but ever since he got out of the vault he’d been quieter about the things he saw. Like the time Tanden cried himself to sleep and Butch had to rub his back until he passed out. Butch didn’t want anyone to know how he felt about this boy who was six months younger than him, not until the time was right and he knew it wouldn’t screw things up.   
They thought they were almost to his dad once. They even saw a letter left behind in one of the shantytowns. His dad told him to quit looking, but Tanden didn’t care. He just wanted his old life back, in the vault where the only thing he worried about was whether or not he’d be a doctor.   
He wanted it all back, except for the part where Butch is the bully and they hate each other. He definitely didn’t want that, especially not after they’d been through so much together.  
The only problem was, he didn’t know for sure if Butch felt the same way. The boy that was in a gang couldn’t possibly like a-used-to-be goody-two-shoes. But, then again, he never thought he’d have a crush on a trouble-maker.  
For the next few weeks they decided to take a break from trying to track him down, and instead laid back and moved at their own pace. It was nice, and they thought that maybe if things didn’t work out they could always be with each other, even if it was just as friends.  
That seemed to be fine, until one night when Tanden leaned down to grab a card off of the floor and tripped over Butch’s foot. Butch caught him, and Tanden’s face turned bright red. Butch always thought it was cute when that happened, but right then, with the dim lamp light tinting it, he wasn’t sure he ever wanted to look away.   
“Thanks, Butch.” Tanden was embarrassed, like always, but Butch didn’t want him to be. He wanted him to be comfortable around him.  
“Hey, Tanden, you know how your face gets really red when you’re nervous?” Butch wasn’t really sure what he was doing, but hopefully it’d work. It had to.  
“U-um, yeah?” Tanden didn’t know people could tell, and it made his face even redder.  
Butch laughed softly at this, continuing to hold Tanden’s wrist. He didn’t want to let go.   
“Well, I think it’s really cute. In fact, I think you’re really cute.” Butch tried to hide his nerves, but his voice may have cracked on the last word. Tanden noticed, and for the first time in a year he knew everything would be okay.  
Butch didn’t know what was happening, but soon Tanden’s mouth was on his and they were pressed together.  
Butch broke away after a few seconds, breathing hard.  
“You like me?” He was surprised, because Tanden never seemed to flirt. Maybe he did, but Butch just couldn’t ell.  
“Yeah.” Tanden was nervous again, worried that maybe Butch had just been giving him a compliment and didn’t mean anything by it. Did friends do that?  
“Good.”


End file.
